Trail Savior: How an Aging Grandma Changed The Fate of the Appalachian Trail

This, of course, isn't entirely out of the goodness of people's hearts. Since Grandma Gatewood's hike sparked a nation's curiosity, towns along the AT have started to see an ever-increasing number of 'trail tourists,' so to speak.

"Now the numbers are so high, that there's an economy," Montgomery explained. "There's bank to be made, so people have become way more welcoming to AT hikers than they were in the past."

Morgan Sommerville, a regional director with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) recently told Nature World News that the number of hikers trying to walk the whole trail in one trip has never abated, with spikes in interest occurring every time the AT happens to find its way back into magazines, books, or movies.

He points to A Walk in the Woods, a humorous book first published by travel writer Bill Bryson back in 1998. Like with Garvey's book and news of Emma's escapades before it, the increasing popularity of this AT story led to a spike in people on the trail. The ATC reported a 60 percent increase in thru-hikers by the turn of the century.

And with a movie adaptation of A Walk in the Woods having just hit theaters this month, Sommerville says that this upward swing is not likely to stop.

Just last year the ATC recorded nearly 2,500 thru-hikers starting their trip at Springer mountain, the southern terminus of the trail. Only a few more than 900 of those northbound hikers reportedly finished the trail at Katahdin Stream, while an additional 2,000 southbound hikers made their start there.

"At that same rate that means [2015] could see as many as 4,000 people trying to start the trail just in Georgia, and that is - well, we're pretty damn nervous about that," Sommerville said with a chuckle.

Terminus in Trouble

And as more and more hikers look to strike out next to the white blazes, managing the trail, especially its polar ends, has become something of a challenge.

Baxter State Park, for instance, which hosts the northernmost 15 miles of the AT, including Maine's Mount Katahdin, recently reached out to the ATC to report some worrisome findings.

Back in 1955, Katahdin's peak was empty of human life save for a haggard-looking grandmother, standing in a thinning pair of tennis shoes, with broken glasses and a nearly empty canvas sling-bag - one she had sewn herself.

"I said I'd do it, and I've done it," Emma Gatewood said aloud, with only the mountain as her witness.

Now, the peak is not only a popular spot for day hikers, but a finish line for a virtual marathon of thru-hikers. (Scroll to read on...)

Baxter reported that in 2014 alone, they regularly had groups of 20 to 45 northbound thru-hikers show in a single day, with the intention of climbing the peak together.

"We worry if there's a lot of people who are more concerned about hiking with one another, and are completely oblivious to the rarities around them... it could cause trouble," Jean Hoekwater, a naturalist at Baxter, explained to Nature World News.

A great deal of the park's concern centers around a section of the AT that tops out around Katahdin called the Table Lands.

"A particular portion of it contains what we call the 'alpine sedge meadow community,'" Hoekwater said. "It's less than one percent of our entire above-tree-line areas on Katahdin, but it contains the prime location for the Katahdin arctic butterfly, which is found no place else in the world."

"That particular butterfly depends on the sedges in that little area, and while those sedges - the bigelows sedge - can tolerate weather changes and rugged environments just fine, it doesn't exactly do so well with footsteps on it," she added.

More than that, Baxter State Park happens to be home to the "greatest collection and highest number of rare and endangered species in any one place in the state of Maine."

The park reported a number of logistic troubles as well, where more hikers would arrive than campgrounds available. The consequence was often that hikers would traipse off the trail, trampling potential rarities just to find a place to sleep.

Amazingly Baxter isn't the only place facing these troubles. Sommerville recounted how Amicalola Falls State Park, right by Springer Mountain, is reporting campgrounds reaching well past capacity with the often unannounced arrival of AT hikers.

"The AT is intended to provide a footpath to seek fellowship with the wilderness," the ATC director explained. However, he added that nowadays that philosophy is changing, with more hikers perhaps looking for a social experience. (Scroll to read on...)

"Were not trying to turn people away, but the main thing that were trying to do is suggest that people spread out their start dates," he added.

The hope is that with fewer people hitting the trail at once, threats to the experience and nature can be halted.

"It's great that more people are getting out in the woods, and I always love hearing how more and more people are learning to love the trail," he said. "But when you get big congregations of people on a small portion of the trail, it definitely causes some difficulties."

With the spring hike season starting soon, the ATC will even be implementing a voluntary sign-up sheet online. This way, Sommerville explained, hikers can see if campgrounds near a terminus or popular mid-way stop (for festivals, etc.) are already booked.

Groups then might have an easier time spreading out, causing less trouble for parks and stewards even as they follow the footsteps of the old woman who helped make the trail the remarkable attraction that it is today - and all just by going for a very long walk.

While we talked about a lot of "what" and "how," you can still learn the gripping "why" Emma Gatewood set out to hike the AT in Ben Montgomery's Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail.

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